Calvary Lutheran Church

God's Calling in Your Life

May the God of peace fill you with all joy in believing. Amen.

Mark 1:14-20

Dear Christian Friends:

            Whenever you meet people for the first time, a question that is often asked is this: “What do you do?” In other words, what is your occupation, your profession, your vocation? I have had that question asked of me several times since we have lived here in Santa Clarita—from our apartment manager to a fellow passenger on the MetroLink. So, of course, I answer, “I am currently serving as pastor at Calvary Lutheran Church in Canyon Country. And there always seems to be a pause or silence afterwards, as though they really don’t know what to say next, as though being a pastor is somehow vastly different from any other occupation.

            But if there is one truth that Martin Luther emphasized over and over again, it is the priesthood of all believers. All believers are priests, all are minsters, all serve the Lord. Perhaps Luther’s most famous statement on the topic was this: “A housewife doing the dishes at home is giving glory to God as much as the pope in Rome.”

            Some might say that a pastor serves the Lord full-time and members just part-time, mostly on Sunday mornings. But Luther would say that all believers serve the Lord full-time. Some might say a pastor doesn’t have a job, he has a calling by God. But Luther would say that all believers have a calling by God in whatever vocation they find themselves in. So this morning I want to speak to you about

GOD’S CALLING IN YOUR LIFE.

            Last time we talked about John the Baptist’s calling to preach repentance and renewal of the Holy Spirit by baptizing at the Jordan River. He even baptized Jesus as he began his ministry. About six months later, however, we read in our text that John was put in prison by King Herod, and we know the circumstances. John had publicly condemned King Herod for having an affair with his sister-in-law. Herod was not pleased and had John arrested, which eventually led to his beheading.

            So John’s calling as the forerunner of Christ was over shortly after it began, which may have caused some to wonder why God would allow Herod to end the life of such an effective minister of the Word, and someone who certainly was doing the Lord’s work. And why didn’t Jesus do something to set him free? John certainly would have continued to baptize and win people to Christ. He would have been a valuable asset to Jesus’ ministry.

            We don’t know why. We remember John’s words when referring to Jesus, “He must become greater and I must become less” (John 3:30). So John himself recognized there would come a time when he would step out of the picture, and Christ would take the spotlight. But that time came more quickly perhaps than he or anyone else thought.

            In my ministry, I’ve buried three pastors in the prime of their ministries. They were still doing valuable work, even world mission work, but God called them home. Elijah was called home when he was still fighting idolatry and corruption. Jesus’ ministry itself lasted only three years before his death, resurrection, and ascension. We think of how much more Jesus would have accomplished if he had lived into his sixties or seventies or eighties. But that was not God’s plan. Perhaps the lesson here is that God calls us to our vocation, and he is the one who can end it at any time. So, like Jesus, we need to work while it is day, before the night comes when one cannot work. (John 9:4).

            And Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). What you do may not seem all that important, and perhaps you are looking for something different in the future, but at this time in your life God has called you to do exactly what you are doing.

            A farmer enlisted in the army during World War II. He wanted to do his part in fighting the enemy and liberating occupied countries from tyranny. But instead of sending him to Europe or the South Pacific, the army sent him to the mountains of East Tennessee as an agricultural specialist to help the farmers increase their crops for the war effort. Not exactly what he had in mind, but it served an important purpose. Every useful vocation has a purpose.

            In this text we see Jesus’ calling in action. Mark writes, “Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:15). Of all the things that Jesus did while here on earth, his primary role was that of Rabbi or teacher. He was an Old Testament scholar, and the message of the Old Testament was this, “The time is coming.” Jeremiah wrote, “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land” (Jeremiah 23:5). Jesus’ message was, “The kingdom of God is near. God’s long-promised Messiah has arrived. I am he.”

            So how does one enter into the kingdom of God? Jesus tells us, “Repent and believe the good news.” Good news to most people today would be, “You’ve won the lottery,” or, “You’ve just been cured of your crippling disease,” or, “You got the job,” or, “You are accepted by the college,” or, “You are going to have a baby.” But Jesus is talking about even better good news. If repentance means confessing that we have sinned against God and man and thereby deserve his wrath and punishment; if repentance means that we have sorrow over our sin and feel its guilt; if repentance means that we strive to overcome sin in our lives; then the good news is that there is forgiveness of sin, peace with God, freedom from guilt. The good news is that God provides the gift of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. That’s the good news that Jesus preached, and that’s the message of the church to this day.

            As old as it may seem, as often as people might have heard it, the message of repentance and believing the good news is a modern today as your I-Phone or the self-driving cars. It is as necessary in your life as your next breath or your next meal. No matter how much we try to deny it or ignore it, sin has the greatest impact in our lives. It comes to us from three directions—the devil, world, and our own sinful nature. Sin infiltrates every fiber of our lives, and brings sorrow and guilt. Sin is everything that is bad about life. But that’s where repentance comes in. Then next greatest impact in our lives is the good news about Jesus. The good news about Jesus is everything that is good in our lives—peace, joy, hope. If the Son of God came down from heaven and preached repentance and the good news, those two truths must be the two more important necessities in life.

          Jesus could have preached on the 10 steps to a happier marriage. Or, he could have taught the five principles for raising children. He could have given seminars on improving your relationships at work, or written books on how to feel good about yourself—and there may be a time and place for that—but that would have had little impact on his hearers, that would not have begun to hit the heart of the matter, that would have been treating the symptoms and not attacking the disease. Repent and believe the good news, do that first, and then these fruits of repentance and faith and the full life will follow. That was Jesus’ calling.

            But then Jesus in turn called helpers, followers, disciples. “As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen, ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘And I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him” (Mark 1:16-20). For these four men their lives changed drastically and immediately. They were first serving the Lord in their occupation as fishermen, but now Jesus was calling them to serve him as fishers of people, to use the net of the gospel to bring others to the faith.

            This was obviously not their first contact with Jesus. We know that they had previously been disciples of John, who witnessed to them about Jesus. Now that John was in prison, they had simply gone back to their first occupation as fishermen. But John’s preaching about Jesus obviously had an impact on them, because all they needed to hear were those three words, “Come follow me,” and they did immediately. And look at what they gave up to follow Jesus—their means of income, their possessions, their families. All of this became secondary to following Jesus.

            And they obviously couldn’t anticipate what was all awaiting them—the long hours, the travel from place to place, the opposition of powerful religious leaders, the rejection by many, the ultimate crucifixion and death of their leader Jesus. But they equally could not anticipate the glory they would see—the teachings of the kingdom of God, the adoration of his followers, the deaf would hear, the blind would see, the dead be raised, Jesus’ own resurrection and ascension, and then Pentecost and their preaching of the gospel to the ends of the world. It was quite a sacrifice, but what a blessing.

            The full-time public ministry is in some ways a sacrifice. There usually are no office hours. There are no set days off. You work most holidays. People leave the church. You don’t always see the fruits of your labors. But it is also a great privilege when people find value in what you have to offer, when they come Sunday after Sunday to be fed with the Word of God, when they want to join your church, or be baptized or confirmed. They don’t come to hear or admire or follow you, they come to hear and admire and follow their Savior. They come to be strengthened by the Spirit and to hear the Father’s love. They come to worship their King. Pastors come and go, but the good Shepherd in Word and Sacrament does not remove himself from his sheep.

            Not everyone, of course, is called to the full-time public ministry, nor do they need to be in order to be his disciples. The Christian faith is not confined inside the walls of a church. What happens here on Sunday morning does not stay here but it is to be duplicated over and over again out there in your calling as husband, wife, father, mother, employer, employee, student, retired; working in the home, working outside the home. Gary Thomas in his book, Working for All It’s Worth, makes the statement, “Wherever we are in our vocation, if Jesus is Lord of our lives, that place is a holy place of service for him.” M. Colley wrote,

            It may be on a kitchen floor,

            Or in a busy shopping store,

            Or teaching, nursing, day by day

            Till limb and brain almost give way;

            Yet if, just there by Jesus thou art found,

            The place thou standest on is Holy Ground.

          In church we worship God, but Paul writes, “I urge you, brothers and sisters in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1). Living each day in the will of God, doing what pleases him, working honestly and diligently, that is our worship during the week.

          In church we praise God, but the psalmist wrote, “My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long” (Psalm 35:28). We praise God in the home, in the workplace, with our lips, but also with our positive attitude and our cheerfulness, after all, we have a God who loves us and nothing can separate us from that love. Luther wrote,

“The pious, who fear the Lord, labor with a ready and cheerful heart; for they know God’s command and will. Thus, a pious farmer sees this verse written on his wagon and plow, a cobbler sees it on his leather and awl, a laborer sees it on wood and iron: ‘Happy shalt thou be and it shall be well with thee.’”

That’s our praise during the week.

            In church we mediate on God’s Word, but the psalmist wrote, “Oh, how I love your law! I mediate on it all day long” ( Psalm 119:97). Throughout the day we look for ways that the Word of God applies to the situation we find ourselves in. And especially we are ready to give an answer to anyone who asks us for the hope that we have in Christ Jesus. That’s our mediating on the Word during the week.

            In church we give thanks to God, but Paul wrote, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17). Every day is an opportunity to give thanks for what we have, who we are, and what we do. Sunday morning is  preparing our life for him, during the week is living our life for him.

            I had a member at our mission church is Georgia who worked for Coca Cola in the IT department. He had a very high position with a very good salary. But he once said to me, “I go to work for Coca Cola so I can support myself and my family, but my real job is serving the Lord.”

            The next time someone asks you, “What do you do?” You could say, “I do this or that, or, I work at this place or that place.” Or, you could say, “I follow Jesus, he has led me to my position at this job or that job, where I serve him in thankfulness.” See if you too don’t get a pause or silence afterwards.

          Yes, Jesus is calling you today, “Come follow me.”

Let us pray:

Dear blessed Lord Jesus: You called disciples to be your followers that they might benefit by your ministry and promote your gospel as fishers of people. Thank you for calling us as well by the power of the Holy Spirit. Use our vocations and our very lives to promote your gospel as well. May we never fail to repent and believe the good news that the kingdom of God is near to each one of us, because you live in us by faith, and you have declared us forgiving and heirs of heaven by your life and sacrifice on the cross. May our daily worship and praise, our mediation on the Word, and thanksgiving be our full-time occupation throughout our journey to heaven. In your name we pray. Amen.